The premise of this book sounded great: A 5-year-old daughter is abducted, and the father gets an email from the kidnapper saying he'll get her back only after he murders his wife. For that reason alone, I happily accepted the offer to read this in exchange for an honest review.
After the first half-dozen chapters that shift in perspective from the father to the mother, however, I decided I've never run into two more self-centered idiots (figuratively or literally). Thank heaven, I said to myself, they married each other and didn't spoil two families.
And for the most part, it went downhill from there till close to the end, when the kidnapper was identified (which was a surprise to me, and for the record, that's a good thing). Even though it isn't all that bad on the whole, I just can't in good conscience round my review up to 4 stars.
The reason for that, mostly, is that all the parents' paranoid thoughts, second-guessing and endlessly questioning why I'm doing/thinking/planning whatever and what the outcome might be (or not) got old almost from the git-go. To quote Nick, the father, "If I'm so sure of myself and my decision, why am I analyzing it constantly?"
Why indeed. In the acknowledgements, the author explains that the originally self-published book (2015) went through an editing process after the current publisher picked it up, during which 30,000 words were added. That is, I suggest, about 29,999 too many.
I will add, though, that the book is well written from a technical standpoint, and I re-emphasize that the premise is a solid one that I'm sure many readers will enjoy. For me, though, it fell a little bit short of really good.
Her Last Tomorrow by Adam Croft (Thomas & Mercer, October 2016); 256 pp.
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